Pantry Challenge Week 4 Progress Report

Week 4 finished  far OVER BUDGET, which surprised me because I thought I would be able to save more this week.  Instead, I made several trips to the store because I needed fresh ingredients to make soup with Poblano peppers which I had in the freezer and was tempted by fresh blackberries which were marked down to $0.99 a pint!  Affordable fresh berries are so rare in the winter, that I splurged and ended up $10.59 over my $30 budget.  Fail!

I was able to make almost all our meals from the freezer and pantry with a few exceptions, and I must admit the homemade waffles with fresh berries and cream were pretty much worth breaking the budget to have!  Plus, I shared them with my daughter on a cozy winter morning, which made them even more delectable.

And, speaking of delectable, we had the most wonderful Phyllo Chicken Pot Pie this week, with ingredients I had on hand.  Mine was not quite as photogenic as the one below, but probably more delicious since it was made with love and bone broth.

One tip for keeping the budget low while still enjoying fresh foods is to make friends with the produce manager of your local store, and frequent the store when markdowns are being done.  Each store has their own schedule, but my store usually has their markdows ready after 2 pm daily except Sundays.

I was able to stockpile three packages of chicken sausages which were $0.99 with coupon. The $0.99 tomatoes were included in the Chicken Tortilla Soup we had tonight (first photo), AND Brushetta which is on the menu for tomorrow, AND a quart of diced fresh tomatoes which are now in the freezer.  All that for less than the price of one can of tomatoes.  I'll post the Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe tomorrow!

We are down to a few oranges and a pint of blackberries in the fridge, but I have some frozen berries in the freezer, and hope to pick up cheap apples tomorrow.  That should get us through to the end of the month with fruits, and we have enough milk and eggs carried over from Week 3.

Total grocery spending for Week 4:  $40.59. 

This post is linked to:
MoneySavingMom's SuperSaving Saturday
BeautyAndBedlam's Tasty Tuesday
Ann Kroeker's Food on Fridays